Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Week 2: 40 Beers 40 Nights

Wednesday - Heady Topper, The Alchemist Brewery (Double IPA 8%) – Let me start by saying that
Heady Topper is a really good beer. Exquisite actually. I’m not an expert, but
it’s one of the best beers I have ever had. If I had access to it, I would
drink it a lot more often. Now that’s out of the way, let me say Heady Topper
is not the best beer in the history of mankind. I don’t even think it’s the
best beer coming out of Vermont and it won’t be best beer on this list of 40.
However, if you go on the internet, you will be lead to believe that Heady
Topper is perfection and it possesses magical powers. You can only buy it at
select retailers in Vermont on certain dates and people wait in long lines for
it. Its cult status was recently profiled in the Boston
Globe. The beer geek website, Beer Advocate, which I visit
roughly 50 times a day, lists Heady as the number one beer among its users. Tracking
down a couple cans in New York City was not easy. I searched Craigslist every
day and communicated with more than one jabroni who wanted to charge me more
than $50 for a four-pack (ironic since the phrase “Don’t Be a D-Bag” is
actually printed on the can). I finally found a guy who was selling it a
reasonable price. Heady retails for $80 a case, but I understand a mark-up for
the convenience of not driving to Vermont and waiting in long lines. I can’t
tell you how Heady pours because the instructions on the can say not to pour it
in a glass. So, I didn't. The mark of a good IPA or DIPA is how well the “hoppiness”
balances with other flavors (in this case citrus and pine) and Heady balances
very well. It has a very smooth finish and…listen, I’m not going to go on and
on about how Heady Topper tastes. It’s all over the internet. It’s good. If you
like IPAs it’s a must try. But after you've tried it, you can go back to
something easier to find and equally as good like a Green Flash West Coast IPA.

Thursday – Grapefruit Sculpin, Ballast Point Brewing Company (IPA 7%) – Fruit beers get a bad rap
thanks to Budweiser’s line of “-aritas”. I generally approach all
fruit-flavored beer with skepticism since even some of my favorite breweries
make fruit beers that I have poured down the drain. But nothing goes better in
an IPA than grapefruit. If you like your beers bitter, the combination of hops
and such a sour fruit is pure perfection. Plain old Sculpin is one of the best
easy-to-find IPAs you can buy and the addition of grapefruit pushes it over the
edge. This is an incredibly delicious and incredibly drinkable brew.

Friday – Big Bear Black Stout, Bear Republic Brewing Company (Imperial
Stout 8.10%) – My introduction to good beers started with Sam Adams and
Guinness. Guinness was the first beer I became a regular drinker of and even
today, I’ll defend it to the death against its many detractors. It’s also the
reason the stout is my favorite style of beer. I seek out good stouts now and
when I found this one on the shelf of my local grocery store, I grabbed a
bunch. Big Bear gets a 100 on Beer Advocate and rightfully so. It has coffee
and licorice smells and malty, caramel tastes. At the same time, it’s not
overly sweet and it doesn't mask the alcohol so much that you could drink
several in quick succession.

Saturday – Void of Light, Gun Hill Brewery (Export
Stout 7.90%) – Two days. Two stouts. I’m embarrassed that this is the first New
York City beer of the 40 Beers 40 Nights challenge. I first tried Void of Light
at a bar in the East Village as we drowned our sorrows over being rejected from
a surprise Foo Fighters show at Irving Plaza. This beer nearly single-handedly
made up for missing the show. You can only get Gun Hill on tap locally or at
the brewery in the Bronx. They brew a bunch of different beers, but I like this
one too much to try another when I wander into a bar that serves Gun Hill. Void
of Light is a fitting name because this stout is very dark. It tastes like black
coffee and chocolate, two things I like almost as much as beer. I want to drink
more of this because I am not sure I can even describe it at this point because
it’s so complex.

Monday – Nugget Nectar, Troegs Brewing Company (Amber Ale 7.5%) – Troegs makes some great
seasonal beers. What’s Christmas without a Mad Elf? This is their spring beer
that does not taste at all like spring. But, I’m not sure it’s supposed conjure
up thoughts of flowers and birds. This is a very malty tasting Amber that is
neither remarkable or offensive. On a warmer night, this would be good to drink
on the patio after a long day at the office, but it’s not something I’ll
actively seek out.

Tuesday – Gonzo, Flying Dog Brewery (Baltic Porter 9.2%) – When I want a dark beer, 9
times out of 10 I’ll go for a stout. I ended up with this porter because I had
been staring at the beer selection at the grocery store for far too long and I
was about to get slapped with a loitering charge. I grabbed it to complete my six
pack and didn't even notice it was a porter until I got home. That’s not to say
there aren't good porters out there. I have just always found porters to be
more “bubbly” and not as “thick” as stouts. That’s super complicated beer
terminology I just used. That said, this beer surprised me by how heavy it was.
It was hoppier than a stout, yet still had a really nice coffee taste. It
worked very well on a night where it felt like winter just won’t end.

1 comment:

The Grapefruit Sculpin sounds fantastic! I love fruit beers... but not "rita" beers. I love sours, Bend Brewing Co has a Ching Ching Cherry Sour and here in Bend we also have Swill from 10 Barrell that is a nice light, summer beer that's fruity. In Ashland they have a Hibiscus Ginger beer that is pretty awesome as well.